


Offer Up Your Hearts

by ajaegershonor (Skydragon503)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:44:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3827731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skydragon503/pseuds/ajaegershonor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The survivors pay their respects to the fallen warriors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Offer Up Your Hearts

Finally arriving at the cemetery, Eren was the first to hop out of the cart, followed by Jean, then Mikasa, and finally Levi. Each of them had items of their own in their hands -- be it flowers, or sentimental items. Levi held a small box, filled with folded Survey Corp cloaks, and other, smaller things. Hanji’s spare glasses, Irwin’s notebook, and the small stationary book that Petra had used to write letters to her Father were directly on top, and he took careful, almost delicate steps. Mikasa held tightly onto a little bit of embroidery, something he’d seen her working on in her spare time over the past weeks since the Titan’s defeat. It was about the size of a dishtowel, but insanely intricate, the names of all their fallen comrades painstakingly woven into the design.

Tearing his eyes away from the group, Eren was the first to walk in, passing each of the marked graves, feeling a stab in his heart at each name he recognized. Hanji Zoe, Irwin Smith, Petra Rall, Armin Arlert, Marco Bodt, Mike Zacharias, Sasha Braus, Connie Springer...Each one made him wince, and he shed a tear at each. He moved on ahead, knowing that stopping at any of them would hold up the group behind him. He had one grave that he was looking for, and one only. But it took walking past all of his fallen comrade’s graves to finally find them, the ones he’d specially requested be put in. Four graves were lined up in a perfect row, each of them a dark color, and only marked with their names, and who they were the parents of.

Karla Jaeger  
Mother of Eren Jaeger

Grisha Jaeger  
Father of Eren Jaeger

Were the first two that were listed. Slowly leaning down, he placed the bouquet on his Mother’s grave, and tears welled in his eyes.

“Mom...Dad...I wonder what you think of me. I know you always thought it was stupid that I wanted to join the Survey Corps, but I hope that you’ll be proud of me. Maybe now you can rest in peace, knowing that I fulfilled the promise I made. All the titans are exterminated. They won’t kill anyone, ever again. It’s mostly thanks to Armin, although he probably won’t take any credit. It was all thanks to his plan, and his sacrifice, that this was possible.” He felt a small chuckle pass through his lips as the tears freely streamed down his face. A hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he knew without looking that it was Mikasa, who must have finished up what she had wanted to say at Armin’s grave. Hearing her gasp, his smile grew a bit wider.

“Eren...I…” Her mouth opened and closed, and tears welled in her eyes. The other graves that stood next to his parents, were in solid grey granite, and simply had her parent’s names carved into them.

“Did you…?” she questioned, looking over at him, and back at the graves. He simply nodded.

“I know that they never really got to have a grave, considering the room inside the walls is small, so only wealthy families can afford to bury and honor their deceased loved ones. But, since the walls aren’t needed anymore--” Before he could get another word out, Mikasa’s arms were around him, hugging him so tightly, it felt as if he couldn’t breathe. He could hear her sobbing into his shoulder, and carefully tried to step away, pulling her arms off of him.

“I’ll leave you to pay your respects, Mikasa.”

She gave a quick nod, and turned, collapsing to her knees in front of her parents graves.

Pressing a kiss to his hand, he tapped his Mom’s headstone, and then quickly walked away. On his way toward the exit, he noticed Jean sobbing in front of Armin’s grave, and took a moment to attempt to console him. His attempts, however, were futile, and weak at best, so he continued moving on. As he walked by, he noticed that there were now things at the graves that he hadn’t seen before. At Petra’s grave, the stationary was carefully placed on top of a Survey Corp cloak. With Hanji’s grave, her glasses were arranged in a similar fashion, and Irwin’s as well, with his notebook.

It was only once he reached the exit that he saw what Levi was doing. Each member, be it Military Police, Survey Corps, or Garrison, had a cloak with their respective affiliation symbol woven into the back. How Levi had managed to procure that many, he would never know. But it made him smile to see the twisted symbol of roses and thorns resting at Hannes’s grave, and the Wings of Freedom proudly displayed at Armin’s. He even noticed that Marco’s grave had a cloak, and so did Mina’s, and Hannah’s, and Franz’s. They bore the trainee symbol, but also had a small medal placed on top, for their valiant sacrifice at such a young age.

He saw Levi’s figure lingering at Irwin’s grave, and slowly walked over, feeling himself shiver at the chill of the morning. Upon reaching him, he wrapped his arms around him from behind, causing Levi to start slightly, but then lean into his embrace.

“He was a great man…” Eren muttered, and Levi only managed to nod.

They stood in silence for a long moment, before he heard Levi give a sort of snort. “Still can’t believe that he managed to get himself killed like that…” And even though he knew the Corporal would protest it to the grave, Eren heard the crack in his voice, and felt another stab to his heart. “And that shitty four-eyes, too…” He held Levi a little bit closer, arms tightening their grip, and continued to stand in silence. Levi spoke up occasionally, mentioning small things about them, pretending not to care even though Eren knew otherwise.

When it finally came to leaving, the group stood at the exit, looking out at the rows upon rows of headstones, eyes red, cheeks blotchy, and throats raw from crying. Carefully, they offered up their hearts one last time, holding the salute for a solid thirty seconds. Then, they turned on their heels, and the only sound they heard as they rode home was the clopping of horse hooves, the creaking of the cart, and the rain steadily beginning to beat down on the canvas roof.

**Author's Note:**

> found this in my drafts and figured i'd post it. 
> 
> and i totally did not make myself cry while rereading it nope--
> 
> leave kudos and a comment if you liked it !


End file.
